[page 35]
An Introduction to Early Korean Writing Systems
by Adrian Buzo
Ⅰ. INTRODUCTION
While it is generally accepted that literacy in Korea dates back to at least the period of the Four Han
Commanderies (2nd century BC to 3rd century AD), our first direct evidence for it comes in the form
of the Kwanggaet’o Stela, a large stone monument located in what is now southern Manchuria, which
recounts at length the deeds of the Koguryo monarch Kwanggaet’o (391-412) and bears a date
corresponding to 414 AD.1
The l,800-character text of the stela is in Chinese, which is fitting because this earliest glimpse we
have of native Korean literacy sets the scene for the almost total monopoly that was to be enjoyed by
Classical Chinese as the instrument of literate culture in Korea during the next 1,500 years. It is also
fitting that it be a Koguryo monument, because Koguryo was the first state east of the Chinese
cultural world to acquire literacy in the Chinese language.
This marriage of spoken Korean and written Chinese was a long one. It lasted while the traditional
political order lasted, and it crumbled away almost as quickly and as completely as did that order
around the end of the 19th century. It was not a totally monogamous marriage, however, and it is with
an aspect of the relatively tiny body of writing in the Korean language from the pre-modern era that
we are concerned here.
Its history may be divided into two periods, with the division coming rather sharply at the
promulgation of the Korean alphabet in 1446. It should be noted at the outset, however, that the basis
of this division is largely a technical one, for although this alphabet, known formally in its day as the
hunmin chongum (“Correct Sounds for Instructing the People”), marked a radical improvement in the
means by which the Korean language was transcribed, its impact was very limited in the Yi period,
being largely confined to the very areas previously covered by the earlier Korean writing systems
which we call idu, hyangch’al and kugyol.
At the same time as we acknowledge the achievement of the hunmin chongum, it is important to
recognize this essential continuum of Korean [page 36] language writing throughout the pre-modern
era, for it was part of an overall cultural continuum. It is the purpose of this paper to identify the
characteristics and trace the development of what we shall call Early Korean Writing Systems, the
predecessors to the hunmin chongum and the means by which the Korean language was transcribed
during the thousand years or so prior to 1446.
Source Material
The source material we have for tracing the development of idu, hyangch’al and kugyol is extremely
scanty. In the case of idu there is a good deal of material dating from the Yi period, but from the
Koryo, Unified Silla and Three Kingdoms periods we have only a handful of short documents and a
few brief inscriptions. For hyangch’al we have 25 short lyrics known as hyang-ga, the texts for
some of which may be corrupt. For kugyol there are some documents from the Yi period, five pages of
a Kugyol-annotated sutra from the Koryo period, and nothing earlier. In addition, there are a fair
number of Korean names transcribed with Chinese characters in a variety of contexts, principally in
the two major sources for early Korean history, the Samguk sagi (1145) and the Samguk yusa (13th
century).
Much of this material is fragmentary, and all of it comes without any explanation, annotation or
commentary. Our ability to use it depends on our ability to reconstruct the spoken forms of the Korean
language for these early periods, and for this we are able to go back only as far as the 15th century, the
earliest period for which we have substantial material in the Korean language. It also depends on our
ability to define with precision the phonetic value of the Chinese characters used in early texts to
transcribe native Korean sounds. The chief tool used for this is Karlgren’s reconstruction of 7th
century Chinese known as Ancient Chinese.2 Lastly, and more intangibly, it depends upon our ability
to understand the cultural context in which these systems were used.
Despite the considerable amount of work that has been done, we may never have more than a general
idea of the sounds and grammatical forms contained in idu/hyangch’al/kugyol source material. There
is simply not enough of it, and what there is is not precise enough to allow much in the way of
detailed interpretation. If there is any ray of hope, it is in the steady uncovering of old documents
previously presumed lost, a process that has been going on since the Japanese colonial period. This
plus the continuing process of re-evaluation of existing material enables us to see the outlines of early
Korean writing systems far more clearly today than even a generation ago.
[page 37]
Terminology
The lack of linguistic explanation or commentary in idu/hyangch’al/ kugyol source material has
tended to obfuscate the basic terminology in popular use. In addition, the terms idu3 and kugyol4 first
occur in early Yi period sources, several centuries after the first evidence of their actual existence,
while we have only one pre-15th century reference to the term hyangch’al as a method of poetry/lyric
transcription, and that is in the Kyunyo-jon (1075). No known term for the practice of name
transcription, which shows some indications of distinct development, has survived.
A basic source of confusion is the apparent application by late Koryo times of the term “idu” to cover
by implication all forms of Korean language transcription. The actual works identified as idu works in
early Yi times, however—for example, the idu translation of the Great Ming Code (Taemyong
yuljikhae, 1396)—clearly relate to a more restricted field of use, that of prose transcription for a
formal or official purpose.5 Further, the function of poetry/lyric transcription is clearly absent from
the account of idu usage given by Ch’oe Man-ri in his defense of idu against the hunmin chongum
before King Sejong.6 It is indications like this that suggest that the use of idu as a broad generic term
is inadequate.
In this situation it is more helpful to proceed from the actual functions and features of these systems
rather than from their names. The
Function
Prose
transcription
Name
idu
poetry/lyric
transcription
translation/
interpretation
transcription
hyangch’al
name transcription
ohui p’yogi
kugyol
Definition
a comparatively primitive, hybrid written
language coniaining both Chinese and Korean
elements.
a full and true transcription of Korean song
lyrics using Chinese characters.
a precise, written form used for rendering
Chinese texts into Korean using a system of
marginal annotations based on simplified
Chinese characters.
a system for transcrioing Korean nouns and pro
per nouns using Chinese characters.
[page 38] names applied to them in this article are the ones in current general use in academic
circles and provide as effective a working terminology as the paucity of source material on them
allows.
It is important to stress that these systems are fundamentally interrelated and that the differences
between them are primarily functional ones. Idu was not a spoken form because it is not necessary to
transcribe spoken forms fully in order to communicate basic information. A person reading idu would
understand its contents directly, and in communicating them to others he would probably start with a
phrase like “It says that...” On the other hand, the more complex demands of lyric transcription where
the actual sound of the the language is of prime importance, and the demands of
translation/interpretation transcription where great precision is necessary to render, for example,
philosophical concepts, required a far more comprehensive, detailed system. This is the basis for
distinguishing between idu and hyangch’al/kugyol. These latter two in turn require different kinds of
precisian—hyangch’al for its aesthetic effect, kugyol for the articulation of phisolophy. All three
systems appear to have proceeded from the same principles, but they differ markedly in the purpose
for which, and thus in the extent to which, they applied these principles.
II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY KOREAN WRITING SYSTEMS
The Chinese and Korean Languages
The characteristics of early Korean writing systems were determined first of all by the nature of the
differences between the Chinese and Korean languages, and a brief consideration of these is relevant
here.
Few languages could be more dissimilar than Chinese and Korean. Chinese is a monosyllabic, tonal
language in which grammatical functions are determined largely by word order, which in turn follows
a basic subject-verb-object pattern. In its written form it employs ideographic characters, each of
which possesses both a phonetic and a semantic value. Korean, on the other hand, is a polysyllabic,
non-tonal language which follows a basic subject-object-verb pattern and in which grammatical
function is indicated by a system of grammatical morphemes attached to substantives in a sentence.
Its sound system, especially its use of final [page 39] consonants, is more complex than Chinese and
its use of particles is also far more extensive.
There were three major implications of these differences for the field of Korean language transcription.
The first was that the actual order of words would have to be changed. “I love you” would become “I
you love.” The second was that grammatical particles not consistently found in Chinese would have to
be accounted for—for example in the sentence above, the sentence topic particle, the object particle
and the verb endings. Thus, while the Korean sentence
Na tangsin sarang
communicates in a basic fashion as does, say, an English newspaper headline or Hollywood Indian
Pidgin English, it full form is
na nun tangsin ul sarang hamnida
and those extra five particles would have to be accounted for in a complete transcription.
The third implication is on the conceptual level, namely, that certain basic items of Chinese
vocabulary do not have strict one-to-one correspondences in Korean. For example, the Chinese
character 天 means “heaven” but its Korean equivalent, hanul, holds both the spiritual meaning of
“heaven” and the physical meaning of “sky”.
So, depending upon whether one was writing a newspaper headline, a love letter or a philosophical
tract, one, two or all of these factors might come into play.
The extreme impracticability, both grammatic and phonetic, of using Chinese ideographs to write
Korean is obvious, and the practical development of early Korean writing systems was due to one
simple, supreme factor: the immense prestige of Chinese civilization. Just as to Europeans, “writing”
meant the Roman alphabet, so to the ancient Koreans it was simply inconceivable that “writing” could
have meant anything else but the use of Chinese characters.
THE THREE KINGDOMS PERIOD (3RD CENTURY-668AD)
As we have mentioned above, the Kwanggaet’o stela is written in Chinese. Some modern
commentators have detected signs of the influence of Korean syntax on the monument’s text but the
evidence for this is extremely slight. The main feature of interest on the stela is the more than 100
Chinese characters used phonetically to transcribe Korean personal names, place names and official
ranks. This confirms what one should have in any case expected, that Koguryo had adopted the
Chinese practice of using characters purely for their phonetic properties to render foreign [page 40]
words into Chinese. Another point of interest here is that a good proportion of these characters also
occur in later Paekche, Silla and Japanese transliterations, suggesting strongly that this practice
reached them via Koguryo.
The translation of names is one thing, the transcription of sentences is another. The latter involves
grammatical transformations of varying complexity depending upon the purpose of the exercise. The
earliest evidence we have of sentence transcription comes in the form of the inscriptions on a few
stone monuments that have been dated to the 5th and 6th centuries.8 The inscriptions from Koguryo
possess the same features as the Silla ones, implying that Silla, a state in which high literacy
developed later than in either Koguryo and Paekche, learned the basic techniques of Korean language
transcription from Koguryo.
The Korean language features which these texts display are of two kinds: the clear use of Korean
word-order, and the use of Chinese characters as grammatical particles based on their Chinese
meaning. Something of the effect of this mix of Chinese and Korean might be gained from
considering the following sentence in English: “It is a basic dictum that habeas corpus be the sinequa-non of just legal procedure,” and so on. A total of twelve particles have been identified so far.
Following are some examples.
Chinese Character
Modern Korean
Equivalent
者
은/는
令
시키다
爲
하다
以
(으)로
中
에
Meaning
topic marker
to order
to do
instrumental particle
locative particle
At this stage of development it is a characteristic of Three Kingdoms period idu that all grammatical
particles and auxiliary verbs such as those listed above derive their meaning directly from the range of
meaning of the Chinese character. This is what is known as “bilingual identifica- tion,” a more simple
process than the abstract uses Chinese characters were later to be put to.9
Limited though the Three Kingdoms material is, there are no indications that idu was in any sense
crude or provincial. The material shows an inner consistency and, of course, we are able to interpret
much of it because it is reasonably consistent with later practice. Although some of [page 41] the
early transcriptions have been found in relatively remote regions, some have also come from the area
of the old Silla capital, Kyongju. Contrary to crude or provincial connotations, there is evidence that
the idu of the Tanyang inscription might have been composed by a central government bureau,10
while the association of idu with the 755 Silla Hwa-yen sutra copying is an association with high Silla
culture.11
Though idu later became associated with the lower government official class, whence its present name
is derived, this is not the complete story of its use in Silla times and earlier. At this stage it is perhaps
better not to prejudge class connotations but instead to measure idu against its actual function which
at least was constant and specific—the recording of factual information in an accessible fashion.
For the Three Kingdoms period—and for the Unified Silla period (668-918) as well—we have only
idu material, much as we suspect that hyangch’al and kugyol might have already been in existence in
some form.
The evidence for this is extremely slight, and hinges basically on indications that the principles which
were later used in hyangch’al and kugyol were known at this time. There are indications that Chinese
characters were being assigned native Korean pronunciation based on their meaning and then used
phonetically in name transcriptions.12 There is also an indication that the principle of using simplified
Chinese characters, a fundamental technique of kugyol, was also known.
Another more general type of reasoning for the existence of a type of hyangch’al or kugyol at this
stage arises from a consideration of at just what level the inadequacy of an alien written form really
makes itself felt. Just as domestic literary traditions asserted themselves against Latin and Greek in
Medieval Europe, would not native Korean lyrics, especially religious incantations, bid for
transcription? Also, if the occasional lack of one-to-one correspondences between Chinese and
Korean affected the iransmission of Confucian, Buddhist and Taoisl teachings, would it not also call
for clarification through annotations? In this schema, idu is not a primitive script in the pejorative
sense but the result of a “spill-over” of sophisticated Korean language transcription techniques already
in existence in the 5th and 6th centuries into a more humble arena.
In the end, however, we are still left with only a tiny portion of evidence and with speculation that
appears to agree with these few known facts.
[page 42]
UNIFIED SILLA AND KORYO PERIODS (668-1388)
As we enter the Unified Silla period we begin to see the nature of early Korean writing systems more
clearly. Although we still lack documentation on hyangch’al and kugyol—these do not appear
before the Koryo period—there is enough evidence of idu to enable us to detect a significant
development in its technique. A good deal of this story appears to be tied up with the pre-eminent Silla
Confucian scholar Sol Ch’ong.
SOL CH’ONG
Even the dates of Sol Ch’ong are only roughly discernible from the fact that his father was the famous
priest Wonhyo (617-686), and a similar veil of mystery surrounds his literary activities. It is popularly
and inaccurately said that Sol Ch’ong invented idu, but this is not just a modern interpretation; the
preface to the Taemyong yuljikhae (1396) says the same. In accounting for this statement, we should
remember that it was made about 700 years after Sol’s time and in the preface to an idu work. The
choice of words may have been influenced by the common tendency to attribute great inventions to
hero-figures and, as we have seen, by early Yi times idu was used as a broad generic term for various
Korean language transcription practices.
But although the statement that Sol invented idu does not bear close examination—it was in use at
least 200 years before his time—it is clear that Sol had a considerable impact on transcription
practices, and for a consideration of this impact we must turn to the early sources.
There are three major Pre-Yi period sources that mention Sol’s literary activities and none of them
mentions idu.13 They are the Kyunyo- jon (1075), the Samguk sagi (1045) and the Samguk Yusa (13th
century). In all three cases they are brief, single references. The Kyunyo-jon tells us that
“Academician Sol greatly transformed Confucian writings but the resultant complications made them
into rats’ tails.”15
The source is not particularly helpful about transcription practices because it does not necessarily
refer to an act of physically changing the appearance of Chinese writings but more likely to Sol’s
commentarial activities. The context is the author expressing his opinion that a confused transmission
of Confucian doctrine has led to a divergence between Chinese and Korean Confucianism. We may be
justified in going no further than noting Sol’s identity as an eminent—perhaps the most eminent—
Silla Confucian commentator on the basis of this quote.
The Samguk sagi includes a piece on Sol in its biography section and in it we find the following
sentence: [page 43] “(He) read the Nine (Confucian) Classics using our own language.15”
Before examining further this reference let us consider the entry in the Samguk yusa where, in the
course of a section on Wonhyo, Ilyon states that Sol “translated Chinese and Korean names using our
own sounds and interpreted the Six (Confucian) Classics which to this day have been transmitted to us,
thereby fully elucidating them.”16
It is clear that Sol’s method was a written method rather than an oral presentation because it was
handed down through the generations. It is equally clear that it far transcended the limits of idu, for it
was capable of “fully elucidating” the Classics, a task that would require a good deal of subtlety and
precision of language if it were to have any kind of intellectual impact at all. It is this sort of
observation that leads us to suspect that what Sol used is what was later called kugyol.
We should also note in passing that the Samguk yusa reference alludes to two distinct practices,
interpreting the Classics and transcribing names. This field of name transcription is perhaps the least
known of all these early systems, but the association of Sol with it suggests that it underwent the same
kind of process of development that idu did about this time.
We thus emerge with a picture of Sol as a pre-eminent commentator on the Confucian Classics via a
Korean language written script of considerable precision. How does this square with what we know of
kugyol?
Kugyol
The term “kugyol” first appears in the early Yi Period as an apparent abbreviation of the term Kusu
chongyol, or “oral transmissions of profound meaning”.17 A kugyol text contains two elements: the
original Chinese text plus annotations in the margin that convert it into Korean by a method very
similar to the Japanese system of kanbun kundoku. The following is an English translation of a
sentence on the next page illustrating step-by-step elucidation from a Koryo Kugyol text: “At that time
there appeared in the world six kinds of upheaval.”18
From this brief actual example we see that kugyol aimed at a full and true representation of the
original in Korean. Its probable origin was in master-disciple sessions where the master would
expound his interpretation of a particular document and the disciple annotate his text accordingly to
preserve these interpretations. Hence “oral transmissions of deep, inner meaning.”
[page 44]
However, we have no documentary evidence to support our suspicion that kugyol was used in Sol
Ch’ong’s time. The earliest document we have comprises five pages from an undated copy of a sutra,
the Inwang-gyong, or Prajnaparamita Sutra, which were discovered in 1973. The marginal
annotations on the document are in the form of simplified Chinese characters used both for their
phonetic and semantic properties. The five pages contain some 314 different grammatical morphemes
possessing anything from one to 16 elements, and while they display some differences in their
operation from Yi period kugyol they are obviously products of the same tradition.
The circumstances of the discovery of this document led to an initial estimate that it dated to the Late
Koryo period, and there is some support for this in the nature of the kugyol used. The actual
grammatical forms display some marked differences from 15th century practice and show some
affinities with older forms known to us through idu and hyangch’al texts. On the other hand, the
actual characters used appear to have more of an affinity with 15th century practice, and this is the
basis for dating it
[page 45]
Koryo Kugyol: A portion of the annotated Inwang Sutra.
[page 46]
Koryo Kugyol: When isolated, the particles of the annotated Inwang Sutra display a strong
[page
47] totonot
too long
resemblance
Japanese
kana.before the 15th century, the grammatical differences being partly
attributable to the innately conservative nature of written language.
The discovery of this annotated Inwang-gyong has enabled us to roll back the known history of kugyol
by a couple of hundred years, but apart from showing that a practice which fits the descriptions we
have of Sol’s activities was prevalent in Koryo times, it is too far after his time to help us very much.
The practice of kugyol in Silla times remains only “likely” in the absence of any documentary
evidence to support it.19
Idu
From the late 6th century to the 750s a gap occurs in idu sources, and when idu appears again in the
750s it is evident that a change of some significance had taken place. As we have already seen, in the
Three Kingdoms period the characteristics of idu had already emerged, consisting of Koreanized
syntax and the appending of Korean language grammatical morphemes based on the principle of
bilingual identification from the Chinese. Idu was to undergo just one further development in its long
career and that was the adoption, probably under the influence of kugyol and hyangch’al, of Chinese
characters used in an abstract manner, primarily to depict Korean language grammatical morphemes
not found in Chinese.
In an idu document dated 755 AD we find an unknown writer setting down the procedure by which
the copying of a Buddhist sutra, the Hwa-yen Sutra, was carried out. As he describes the procession
that preceded the actual writing he devotes one clause to each facet: “Two acolytes in robes of pure
color preceded them holding confirmation staffs, followed by four acolyte musicians in similar garb
who played as they went. Yet another sprinkled fragrant water on the pathway and another scattered
flowers...” and so on. Each clause ends with a Korean connective particle whose modern equivalent is
/myo/, and which has no remote Chinese equivalent. The character used for this is 弥 with a sound
approximating /myo/ and no semantic significance. This is the first example we have of the use of
pure grammatical morphemes, and it will be immediately apparent that it permits a far greater degree
of precision than the older method of bilingual identification. The example of /myo/ is an example of
a technique known as umga ch’ayong (sound-borrowing).
There is evidence of another new technique at work in this document, a techniqie that is basically the
same as the use of 珍 as /tol/ in early name transcriptions; namely, the adoption of Chinese
characters for their semantic properties alone. We find, for example, the declarative verb
[page 48]
Silla Idu: The afterword to a Hwa-ycn Sutra bearing a date corresponding to 754 AD.
[page 49] ending /ta/, hitherto transcribed as 之 /chi/ from an unusual but valid facet of its Chinese
range of meaning, that of being a final embellishing particle, is now also transcribed as 如 . In this
case the sound has been ignored and the meaning— “like, resembling” —alone adopted. The Modern
Korean verb for “like, resembling” is /tapta/ and the Silla equivalent of its root would have resemoled
/ta/. This assigning of a native Korean phonetic value to a Chinese character based on its meaning is
known as hun’gach’ayong (meaning-borrowing) and again its advantages for precise transcription are
obvious.20
With the acquisition of the principles of umga ch’ayong and hun’ga ch’ayong idu reached the limit of
its technical development. But it is not the presence or absence of techniques that defines the nature of
idu, and it is an interesting reflection of its function-bound nature that it applied umga and hun’ga
extremely sparingly, and always within the boundaries of formal, official prose. In the Unified Silla
period we see an increase of only 15 particles over the 12 identified from the Three Kingdoms period,
and not all of the additions are umga ch ch’ayong, or hun’ga ch’ayong, but old bilingual identification
particles.21
Idu manifested signs of continued, limited growth in the Koryo period.22 Again, our material is very
scanty but there is evidence of a further 30 or 40 Chinese characters in use while the morphemes they
represent become relatively more complex, possessing up to seven elements. By the early Yi period it
appears to have been widely in use among low-level government officials and those whose knowledge
of Chinese, however adequate, had not been won through the examination system. At the time of the
promulgation of the Hunmin chongum it was apparently perceived as a useful tool and King Sejong at
one stage made a direct parallel between the aims of his system and the function if of idu.23
Idu continued to be used until late Yi times. It had taken firm root in the lower levels of officialdom
and examples of its use in conjunction with both Chinese and hunmin chongum survive from the 17th
century to attest to its durability. Like certain life-forms, it was so well adapted to its humble purpose
that it survived long after its fancier cousins had flourished and passed away.
Hyangch’al
Though idu appears to have noted the principles of umga ch’ayong and hun’ga ch’ayong but largely
passed them by, these principles are an integral part of both hyangch’al and kugyol because the
demands of accurate transcription required their frequent employment. In the case of
[page 50]
Koryo Hyangch ‘al: A page from the Samguk yusa which begins with the text of Mochukjirangga-”Grieving for my Lord Taemal.”
[page 51] hyangch’al we can see them at work but only imperfectly, for the entire body of surviving
hyangch’al amounts to 25 short lyrics called hyang-ga.
The reference to the transcribing of hyang-ga—and thus by implication hyangch’al that occurs in the
Samguk sagi suggests that it was a substantial tradition in the 9th century. For the year 888 AD it is
recorded that “Queen Chinsong and the Priest Taeku made a collection of hyang-ga called the
Samdaemok.”24 This brief reference gives no hint as to the scale of the work, but to be recorded at all
in the annals and to involve royal participation it would have had to be substantial.
The earliest surviving example of hyangch’al at work that we have is contained in the Kyunyo-jon, a
short, eulogistic biography of the early Koryo priest Kyunyo (923-973) written by an 11th century
government official by the name of Hyok-ryon Chong in 1075. The work consists of an introduction
plus ten episodes from Kyunyo’s life, one of which deals with Kyunyo’s composition of the Pohyon
sibwon-ga, a cycle of eleven ten-line hyang-ga based on a unified them from the Hwayen Sutra. The
songs are given with Kyunyo’s own introduction and Hyok-ryon Chong comments that they used to
be pasted up on walls at the time of their composition, both indications that the texts are probably 10th
rather than 11th century texts.25
The term “hyangch’al” comes from another section of the Kyunyo-jon in which Hyok-ryon
incorporates a short work by a contemporary of Kyunyo’s, Choe Haeng-gwi. Choe’s purpose is to
give Chinese translations of the songs for the benefit of the Chinese who, naturally, would only be
able to understand the occasional substantive in the hyangch’al script. In the course of a long
introduction to his translations, in which he gives an extremely valuable description of how a 10thcentury Korean saw his own literary traditions, Choe comments as follows:
“T’ang writing, like the Imperial Network, embraces us and so we can easily read it. However, our
printed letters are similar to the way Sanskrit writing is strung together, and so they are difficult for
others to understand.”26
“Our printed letters” is rendered as hyangch’al ( 郷札) while by Sanskrit writing Choe means the
practice of phonetically transcribing Sanskrit Buddhist terms into Chinese syllable by syllable. This is
the sole reference we have to the term hyangch’al in pre-modern sources. It refers rather succinctly to
a native Korean form of writing an example of which is the method used to transcribe the songs of
Kyunyo.
Because the songs are composed by one person at one time and because their texts have come down
to us via an early woodblock [page 52] printing,we are reasonably convinced of their fidelity. In
addition, we have Choe Haeng-kwi’s rather free but helpful Chinese translations to aid us in
deciphering them. This contrasts somewhat with the fourteen hyang-ga in the Samguk yusa where not
only are the texts possibly corrupt in places but also we are not sure of the actual dates of their
transcription. Our best text of the Samguk yusa is a 16th century woodblock printing that copies
Ilyon’s 13th century work in which the songs are ascribed mainly to the 7th-8th centuries.27 Despite
the difficulties involved in interpreting them, however, we can still detect signs of a substantial lyric
tradition in them. For example, there is the song “Grieving for my Lord Taemal,” attributed to
Taemal’s protege Sil-o in the late 7th century.
When I look back upon all our past springs
I helplessly weep in my sorrow.
On your fair face where beauty had shone
The toll of the years kept mounting.
If only once more, if just for an instant,
We could be together once more…
Taemal, my lord! Now my grieving heart
Spends its nights in the weed-strewn wilderness.
The interpretation of kugyol texts is relatively easy. Not only is there an original Chinese text to assist
us but the vocabulary consists almost entirely of Sino-Korean compounds. In the case of hyangch’al,
however, we are dealing with song lyrics, and while some bino-Korean surfaces occasionally as
Buddhist metaphysical vocabulary in the Pohyon sibwon-ga, the hyang-ga are almost entirely in pure
Korean that dates to at least several centuries before the earliest reliable reconstructions of these forms.
Let us look briefly at the means by which the first two lines of “Grieving for my Lord Taemal” (Mo
chukchirang-ga) can be deciphered. The text is as follows:
去隠春皆理米 毛冬居叱沙哭屋履以憂音
We start off by applying a fundamental principle that the nouns and verb roots in a hyangch’al text are
presented by means of bi-lingual identification. Thus we postulate that the following are nouns and
verb roots and attempt to construct grammatical forms around them.
[page 53]
Chinese Character
Pronunciation
Meaning
(Modern Korean)
去
/ka/
go
春
/pom/
spring
皆
/ka/
total
哭
/ul/
tears
夏
/sorum/
sorrow
The reconstruction of these grammatical forms is often only partially possible. In some cases they are
directly inferable from idu or kugyol practice— 隠 for n, for example. In other cases the phonetic
reconstruction and syntax aids us. The two lines under discussion give a literal rendering “When I pile
up past springs, with unstoppable tears is my sorrow.”28
Pronuciation
Chinese Characters
隠
go” - past tense. Thus /kan/
meaning “past.
理
- to amass, etc.
米
毛冬
毛冬居叱沙
attributive to the following
verb “to cry”-perhaps
“unbearable”, “unstoppable
屋履
以
音
in Modern Korean
/n/
Meaning
adjectival form for the verb “to
/ri/
component of the verb /karida/
/mae/
verb ending meaning “when”,
“as soon as”
verbal prefix “unable”
uncertain - a negative
/mot/
uncertain
/ul/
/ro/
/m/
gerund-thus “crying”
instrumental particle “with”
final consonant for /sorum/
From this brief example one can appreciate the difficulties surrounding hyangchyal interpretation, but
this is not to support the oft-heard [page 54] statement that hyangch’al was extremely complicated
and it ultimately fell into confusion and disuse, This assertion is usually made to account for the
absence of any hyangch’al material after the time of the Samguk yusa’s compilation, but it is an
assertion that relies on the absence of documents from a time when few documents of any kind have
survived. Certainly hyangch’al was complicated, but so would any such system be. It seems a little
hard to suggest that Koryo poets would abandon a long and deep poetic tradition because transcription
presented too many problems. While we cannot be sure of all the factors involved, the
disappearance of hyangch’al by the time of the hunmin chongum (1446) must have been partly linked
to the waning of the hyang-ga themselves. This waning is intimated by the contrast between Choe
Haeng-kwi, who in the 10th century matter-of-factly portrays the sanui-ga, a sub-category of the
hyang-ga genre, as a tradition comparable with the Chinese poetic tradition, and the Koryo-sa (1450)
where an orthodox Confucian judgement is passed on them and they are described as a minor genre,
“folk songs”.29
Hyangch’al appears and disappears. Although it was used well into the Koryo period, when the Koryo
kayo, a miscellany of songs came to be transcribed in the 15th century, the hunmin chongum were
used. One of them, Chong kwa-jong, is in the same ten-line form as Kyunyo’s songs and is a superior
lyric poem, but it is not to these qualities that it owes its survival, but to its accompanying music and
dance. The Korean lyric tradition had now been claimed by other forms, and its transcription was the
province of the hunmin chongum.
III. SOME IMPLICATIONS
We have now seen something of the three early Korean writing systems, idu, hyangch’al and kugyol.
As we have also seen, the source material for them is extremely fragmentary and difficult to interpret.
This is unfortunate because this field contains implications of considerable importance for our
understanding of early Korean culture. However, if the nature of our source material does not allow
much in way of detailed conclusions, we may at least examine some general implications. Let us
consider, thenm, both briefly and in general terms, two issues of importance: 1) the relationship
between early Korean and early Japanese writing systems; and 2) the nature of the hunmin chongum
in the light of what went before.
[page 55]
EARLY KOREAN AND JAPANESE WRITING SYSTEMS
When we compare early Japanese and Korean writing systems it is the similarities that immediately
strike us. Hyangch’al has its counterpart in manydgana, the script of the 8th century Japanese poetry
collection, the Manydshu (c. 759),while the abbreviated Chinese characters of the native Japanese
syllabary (kana), which first begin to appear in the 9th century, obviously resemble kugyol characters.
Then again, there is the Japanese system of kanbun kundoku, the earlest surviving example of which
dates to 828 A.D. and which is essentially the same as kugyol as a means of annotating Chinese texts
to transform them—in the case of kanbun, into Japanese. As we learn more about the nature of Korean
influence on Japan during this period, and as more documents come to light, we may be able to fill in
the picture further, but for the moment we are simply left with these striking similarities.
It is worth remembering that although the grammars of the Korean and Japanese languages are
generally similar their sound systems are not, and so the Korean system would have only general
application to Japanese transcription practices. It has been estimated that the Japanese language of the
Nara Period consisted of eighty-two distinct syllables and thus could be transcribed phonetically using
eighty-two Chinese characters. Of course, manydgana did not limit itself to 82, but it made much
greater use of phonetic readings than did hyangch’al. While the Korean systems were wedded to the
concept of syllabic transcription, complexities were forced upon them, for Korean syllables number
many thousands. This incompatibility of the syllable to the Korean sound system provided a powerful
impetus to King Sejong to split it into component phonemes, thus marking a fresh point of departure
for Korean language transcription practices. The Japanese sound system, on the other hand, was well
suited to the syllable, and its writing system today consists of the descendants of Chinese characters
borrowed, standardized and abbreviated.
EARLY KOREAN WRITING SYSTEMS AND THE HUNMIN CHONGUM
At the time of the invention of the hunmin chongum, the medium of literate culture in Korea was
Classical Chinese with a slight leavening of idu and kugyol. It appears that hyangch’al had already
fallen into disuse. After 1446, and as long as the traditional political order and the education system
that buttressed it remained intact, Classical Chinese continued to exercise its near-total monopoly.
This monopoly was broken only by the continued use of idu in some special areas connected with the
activities of low-level government clerks, by the practice of kugyol—now [page 56] often using
hunmin chongum symbols as well as simplified Chinese characters—and by the hunmin chongum
itself, in prose called onmun (“vernacular writing”), used for transcribing Korean language literature,
from the sijo and kasa verse forms to vernacular translations of the Buddhist scriptures and other
didactic material.
One often hears that the hunmin chongum somehow “failed” to have much of an impact, but our
assessment of the hunmin chongum is often conditioned by the fact that today it is a very effective
means of mass literacy on its own. Unless we understand Sejong’s activities in their own context, this
modern aspect of the hunmin chongum’s use may lead us to misinterpret his motives.31
Literacy in the 15th century meant mastery of Classical Chinese, and it was not the aim of Sejong to
alter this state of affairs. Rather, a prime aim of his was to address himself to the shortcomings of the
existing systems of Korean language transcription, an aspect of his motivation that emerges via the
Preface to the Hunmin chongum itself, written by Chong In-ji. Chong cites four areas where the use of
hunmin chongum would be effective:
1) Interpreting the meaning of documents,
2) Lawsuit procedure,
3) Accurate rendering of the sound of Chinese characters,
4) Transcription of Korean songs according to the Chinese scale.
With the exception of 3) it is very apparent that these fields were precisely the fields covered by idu,
hyangch’al and kugyol. “Interpretation of the meaning of documents” was the function of kugyol; the
role of idu in legal afrairs is attested to by the Taemyong yuljikhae, an idu translation of the law code
of Ming China that was carried out in 1396; and the transcription of Korean songs had been the
province of hyangch’al.
However, all this adds up to a very limited charter for the hunmin chongum. No doubt the opposition
of the literati played its part in enforcing the limits of this charter, but it is equally evident that Sejong
had no revolutionary thoughts in mind in creating the hunmin chongum, but rather a desire to see
things done better and more efficiently. When we measure his creation not against its possibilities but
against the specific tasks assigned to it we gain a more accurate appreciation of the reasons for the
limited role played by this phonetic script in pre-modern Korea.32
[page 57]
IV. CONCLUSION
When the ancient Koreans first adopted the Chinese written language and attempted to express their
own spoken language with Chinese characters, they came up against a wide variety of problems. The
sound system of Chinese—or at least the syllabic expression of that sound system—differed greatly
from that of Korean, Chinese grammar could hardly have been more dissimilar to Korean grammar,
and the syllable was a singularly awkward unit to try to bend to the intricacies of the Korean sound
system.
However, as “writing” was considered synonomous with the use of Chinese characters, efforts were
made to apply them to the Korean language, not as an abstract exercise but in order to accomplish
specific tasks. The results of these efforts were idu, hyangch’al and kugyol. Our basis for
distinguishing between these three is their differing functions, out of which arose their distinguishing
characteristics. Beyond their differing functions they appear to share common principles, and seem to
have issued out of a common tradition. It is on the basis of distinct characteristics that we are led to
reject the use of “idu” as a broad generic term and to apply it instead to the restricted field of prose
transcription. Similarly, we apply the term hyangch’al to lyric transcription and kugyol to the practice
of transcription for the interpretation/ translation of Chinese Buddhist and Confucian texts.
The first clear examples of Korean language transcription that have survived occur in idu
transcriptions dating to the 5th and 6th centuries. These texts use Chinese language vocabulary and
even slabs of Chinese grammar along with particles representing Korean language grammatical forms
based on direct bilingual identification. We then note references to what must have been a reasonably
complex system of transcription attributed to Sol Ch’ong, a Silla scholar who appears to have been
active around the end of the 7th century. Shortly afterwards, in the 750s, we notice for the first time
new principles at work in idu prose, though they are linked only circumstantially to accounts of Sol’s
activities. These principles of phonetic borrowing (umga ch’ayong) and semantic borrowing (hun’ga
ch’ayong) marked a definite advance on the previous principles in use, and laid the foundation for the
comparatively accurate phonetic transcriptions and precise grammatical forms that are visible only
fitfully in idu but which are an intergral part of the hyangch’al (10th century) and kugyol (14th
century) texts that we have.
Apart from this evidence of one marked technical advance, we can [page 58] reconstruct very little of
the history of these early systems. We do not know whether they were well-regarded or ill-regarded by
their users, and we can make few judgements about the social significance of their usage, except that
they were always quite subordinate to the Chinese written language. The disappearance of hyangch’al
by the 15th century is a puzzling phenomenon, perhaps best related to changes in the Korean cultural
and literary environment than to any technical defects, but idu and kugyol continued to play useful
roles well after the invention of the hunmin chongum.
Another profound change in the means by which the Korean language was transcribed was wrought
by King Sejong with the invention of the hunmin chongum. Sejong’s activities did not take place in a
vacuum, however, and a good part of his motivation was to improve the existing systems of
transcription. Starting from fresh premises, he accomplished a major technical improvement by
splitting the syllable into its component phonemes, thereby enabling simpler, more accurate
transcription.
Sejong’s achievement was basically technical, however. There is little evidence to suggest that he
sought a role for Korean language transcription that was substantially different from that hitherto
filled by idu/ hyangch’al/kugyol. Thus it was that Classical Chinese remained the primary written
language in traditional Korea, while Korean language transcription continued to play the minor role it
had taken from its inception, a role that changed only when the traditional political order and its
education system collapsed at the end of the nineteenth century.
NOTES
1. For a text of the Kwanggaet’o stela see Yuktang Ch’oe Nam-sun chdn-jip 8 (Seoul, Hyonam-sa, 1973), pp.
138-40. A succinct summary of the earliest references to literacy in Korea may be found in Shim Jae-gi,Kugydl
ui saengsong tnit pyonch’on e lae havo (The Rise and Transition of Kugyol), Hanguk Hakpo 1,1975.
2. In a detailed consideration of the accuracy of Ancient Chinese and its application to the Japanese script
manydgana Lange (Phonology of Eighth Century Japanese Tokyo: Sophia University 1973) states: “I… feel that
ancient Chinese is fully valid as the standard literary system of pronunciation upon which the Japanese were
most likely to base the valueof ongana (phonetic readings) when writing Japanese.” (p. 75) Manvogana, as we
shall see, is based on similar principles to hyangch’al.
[page 59] 3.The term “idu” first appears as “iso” (吏 書-officials’ writing) in the Chewang ungi (late 13th
century). It appears as “idu” in the Taemyong yuljikhae, but the use of various characters for “du” subsequently
fixes it as a phonetic reading with a meaning approximating “manner, style” (cf. modern Korean /malt’o/ “manner of speech”). For the texts of early references to iso/idu, see Kim Kun-su, Idu yon ‘gu (A Study of Idu),
Asea Yon’gu (Koryo University) Vol. 4,No. 1,1961.
4. For a list of early references to kugyol, see Shim, op. cit., p. 21.
5. The Preface to the Taemyong yuljikhae sets out the reason for its compilation as follows: “In the Samhan
Period they called the vernacular letters invented by Sol Ch’ong Idu. They are established as a custom, known
and practiced. We cannot suddenly change them.” The text of the work, however, is Chinese in vocabulary,
linked by idu particles. (The above passage is carried in Hwang Pae-gang, Silla hyangga yon’gu (A Study of
Silla hyangga) in Silla kayo ydn’gu, Seoul: Chongum-sa, 1979,p. 37).
6. Choe says: “Although the idu of Sol Ch’ong of Silla is regarded as base, it used Chinese characters that the
Chinese use and employed grammatical particles with them so it has not departed from their use. Thus, although
clerks and others may want to use it, they must first read many books, know their characters and then use idu.
Users of idu must rely on characters and master them. Thus people who know how to write because of idu are
many, and indeed it is a help to learning.” (Passage in Hwang,op. cit., p. 42.)
7. See Nam P’ung-hyon, Hanja ch’ayong p’yogibop ui paltal (The Development of Korean Writing Systems), in
Kungmun hangnon-jip 7-8 (Dankook University, 1975,p- 17).
8. They include the Imshin sogi songmyong, a stone on which two Hwarang have evidently carved an oath of
loyalty; the Musu ojak pi’myong, which records details of some dike repair work carried out near modern-day
Taegu; Namsan shinsdng pi’myong, recording fortress repairwork carried out on Namsan at Kyongju and the
Tanyang Silla Chdksongbi which records details of fortress repair work near modern-day Tanyang. From former
Koguryo territory comes the Songbyok sogangmyong which records the visit of a government inspection party.
See Nam, op cit., for an analysis of these inscriptions. For the Tanyang Silla Chdksongbi see Nam P’ung-hyon,
Tanyang Silla Choksongbi ui ohakchogin koch’al (“A study of the language of the Tanyang Silla Choksongbi”)
Nonmunjip 13 (Dankook University, 1979, pp. 9-23).
9. The Imshin sogi sdngmyong contains several passages of clearly Korean context and only one single possible
idu particle. This Korean syntax and lack of additional grammatical particles has led some to label it as a
separate system, sogich’e (“oath writing”) connoting a rather inchoate form of idu. This inscription is the only
example of sogich’e and in appearance it seems rather makeshift, all of which tends to diminish the importance
of this term. For its text, a Modern Korean translation and commentary see Yi Ni-mun, Kugosa kaesol
kaejdngp’an (An Outline History of the Korean Language, Revised Edition) Seoul: Tap ch’ulp’ansa, 1972, p. 48.
10. See Nam, op cit., pp. 26-21.
11. for a translation of the idu afterword to one scroll of the sutra see Korea Journal, Vol. 20, No. 9 (Sept 1980),
pp. 55-6.
12. There is the use of the character , (Sino-Korean pron. /chin/, “precious stone, jewel”) as something
approximating /tol/, the native Korean word for stone. This has been taken as a sign that transcription was no
longer limited to the restricted application of Chinese syllables to the Korean sound system, an important step
forward on the path to hill phonetic transcription.
[page 60] 13. A fourth reference occurs in the Chewang ungi (late 13th century) but does not add anything to
the other three: “S61 made Official Writing (iso) and thereby our native language interpreted all manner of
Chinese writing.” See Footnote 16) for reference.
14. Kyunyd-jon, Chapter 8.
15. See following footnote.
16. These three quotes are extremely important for an understanding of Sol’s activities. For ease of reference the
original Chinese is reproduced below. All these quotes with translations into modern Korean and comments may
be found in Hwang Pae-kang, op cit., pp. 37-43.
a) Kyunyo-jon:
薛翰林強變 斯文 煩成 尾之所致者歟
b) Samguk sagi:
総生明鋭…以方言讀九經 訓導後世 至今學者宗之
c) Samguk-yusa:
聪生而 敏 博通經史…以方音通會華夷方俗物名 訓解六經文學 至今海東業明經者 博受不絶
17. For details of these earliest references see Hwang Pae-gang, op cit., p. 48.
18. This and other examples of kugyol technique appear in Nam P’ung-hyon and Shim Jae-ki, Kuyak Inwanggyong ui kugydl yon ‘gu (On the kugyol in the Annotated Inwang- gyong), Tongyanghak No. 6,1976,p. 41. A
reproduction of the entire document is carried in Misul charyo (National Museum of Korea) No. 18 between pp.
22-23.
19. For a full analysis of the document see Shim Jae-gi, Inwang-gydng kugyol e tae hayo in Misul Charyo No.
18,pp. 19-35. Also see Nam and Shim, op cit.
20. It is worth noting that the observation on umga ch’ayong and hun ch’ayong preceded the appearance of the
idu Afterword of the Hwa-ven Sutra, whose text was then found to be consonant with the observation. It had
initially relied on a short idu inscription, the Kalhang-sa sokt’apmyong. See Nam, Hanja ch’ayong p’yogibop
ui paltal p. 18.
21. In addition to the Hwa-yen Sutra Afterword, material from the Unified Silla Period is limited to three bell
inscriptions the Kalhang-sa pagoda inscription, four pages from a Silla village tax register and one other short
official document which apparently owes its survival to the fact that it was used to wrap a ceremonial gift and
then sent to Japan.
22. For details of Koryo idu materials and analysis of one of these, the 1281 Songgwang-sa Slave Document,
see Nam P,ung-hyon, 13 segi nobi munso ui idu e tae hayo (On the idu in a 13th century slave document),
Nonmunjip No. 8,(Dankook University 1974, pp. 9-28).
23. sejong Sillok Vol. 103; 21a. Sejong resonds to Ch’oe Man-ri’s defense of idu as follows: “Wasn’t it the main
purpose of idu to benefit the people? Isn’t the idea of vernacular writing the same? Do you think that only Sol
Ch’ong had the right idea?”
24. See Hwang Pae-gang, op cit., p. 17,for text and commentary.
25. Kyunyo-jon, Ch. 7. For a reprint of the original text see the Minjok munhwa chujinhui edition of the
Samguk yusa (Seoul, KySngin munhwa-sa, 1973) where it is carried as an appendix.
26. Kyunyd-jon, Ch. 8.
27. See footnote 25 for details of this text.
28. The landmark work of hyangch’al interpretation is Yang Chu-dong, Koga yon ‘gu (A study of ancient songs)
Seoul, Ilchi-gak, 1965 (revised edition). His interpretations have provided the basis for much of the work done
since then, which is of variable quality. The above interpretations are based on Chong Yon-ch’an, Hyang-ga
haedok ilban, in Inmun [page 61] yon’gu nonjip 4 (S5gang University), 1972. Peter H. Lee’s “The
Saenaenorae—Studies in Old Korean Poetry” (Rome, 1958) appears to be based on Yang’s earlier work.
29. See Hwang Pae-gang ,op cit., p. 30.
30. In Japan a similar process of rediscovery and analysis of early inscriptions has revealed evidence of
analogous practices in name transcription, cases of Japanized syntax in what were previously thought to be pure
Chinese texts and, most strikingly, the use of the staple Korean idu particles 之 in the Ono Yasumaro tomb
inscription (723 AD) and 中 in the Inariyama Tumulus Sword Inscription (est 471 AD). For details of the latter
see Murayama & Miller, The Inariyama Tumulus Sword Inscription, Journal of Japanese Studies Volume 5,
Number 2, summer 1979,pp 405-438.
31.A ready illustration of this tendency in English is Kang Man-gil, “The Historical Significance of the
Invention of HangGl,” Korea Journal Vol. 17. No. 10 (October 1977) pp. 47-54.
32.This section is based largely on Nam P’ung-hyon, Hunmin chongum kwa ch’aja p,yogibop kwa ui kwan’gye
(The Relationship of the Hunmin chongum to Early Korean Writing Systems) Kukmun hangnon-jip No. 9
(Dankook University 1978).